Thoughts on COVID-19 Vulnerabilities
As I sit in my home sequestered due to the coronavirus pandemic I have plenty of time to reflect on my life and the times when I felt vulnerable. Now, in spite of my isolation, I’m feeling somewhat vulnerable just due to my age. Fortunately, economic vulnerability is not an issue; COVID-19 vulnerabilities are.
I remember a time when I was younger when I felt very vulnerable, so I can appreciate what many are experiencing now. Would I have been out in the streets clamoring for freedom and demanding to open the economy as I see some doing now? I don’t know. What I do know is that even when I had very little, I was always trying to position myself economically so that I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck and spending carelessly.
When I was a young single parent and not making much while living in expensive Alaska before I got a good paying oil company job, I made sure that I was putting some money away, no matter how little, for emergencies. I did not go to expensive hair salons, get mani’s and pedi’s, get tattoos, buy expensive lattes, drive vehicles that used a lot of gas, get massages, eat out frequently, go to lots of movies, buy lots of clothes, or any of the other things I see many doing under normal circumstances in our society.
Now is a good time for those who are currently vulnerable to use the downtime to review their usual spending habits to see where their money is or, rather, has been going, going, gone. I don’t know if very many of these folks who live paycheck to paycheck actually keep a budget to help them identify how much they should be spending versus how much they are spending. A budget would identify necessary and discretionary expenses so that people know where they can cut when needed or where they should cut even when not needed to help them put some away for difficult times – like now.
Many will argue that the economy of the past thirty years with low wages that demand workers hold two or even three jobs does not allow for much money to be saved. I get that, and I feel for those who are in that predicament, but I’m sure there are many who are just living beyond their means because that “keeping up with the Jones” mentality is always at play for many.
At this time when $1200 checks are going out to help the economy and those who cannot meet their required payments for rent, mortgage, food, etc., I read about those who plan to use that money to book cruises in the future. I sincerely hope that those who are dire straits are using the money to meet real needs rather than their fantasy needs of the future.
According to credit card debt studies as of 2018 Utahns held the third-highest credit card debt in the nation following Alaska at #1 and Wyoming at #2. $11,222 was the average credit debt in Utah in 2018 while the average American household debt then was $5,700 and the average for balance-carrying households was $9,333. Individuals between the ages of 45 and 54 (Gen Xers) generally carry the most debt. This debt load certainly has not properly positioned Americans in general and Utahns specifically for the situation we now face. The 2018 report revealed that the average American held 52% more debt than they did a decade earlier. Of course, the Great Recession of 2007 or 2008, depending on how it’s defined, did not help since that was driven by more debt, housing. It’s clear that there’s no simple answer to why people get tangled up in credit debt. Some debt is caused by discretionary spending and some caused by expenses that are not discretionary.
So now many find themselves in a dire situation – no savings, lots of debt, perhaps no medical insurance and no job plus the possibility of exposure to a serious illness. Not a good situation in anyone’s definition.
So what’s freedom got to do with vulnerability? Well, when you equate freedom with doing whatever you want whenever you want it seems a recipe for getting yourself in the situation I’ve just described. So, yes, it’s your right to march in the streets and demand that the economy be reopened so that you can earn money for living expenses and money which should, but perhaps will not be used to reduce a debt burden. But, when your lifestyle has perhaps led to the situation in which you now find yourself through your spending choices, perhaps you should use that word “freedom” as a word that should better describe your responsibility to live reasonably and not put that lifestyle off on others during a time when we are all faced with the issue of illness due to this pandemic. Sometimes vulnerability comes down to choices.
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